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If you garden organically, grow disease-resistant roses such as Rosa rugosa or use products based on sulphur and fatty acids.

PERFECT LEEKS

Organically grown leeks: If you sow now you'll have young plants ready for late June

Some gardeners like to start off their leeks in early April. But if you sow them now in a pot or directly into a well-worked seedbed, you'll have young plants ready for lining out in late June or early July. That will result in younger, more succulent leeks for autumn as well as ensuring a long-lasting winter crop. The seedlings will be ready for planting out when they've grown as thick as pencils. Space them 15cm or 20cm apart with 30cm between rows.

BEWARE OF FROST

Many gardens may still suffer a damaging frost, even in May. If you live in a city or town, night temperatures are high enough to avoid such unwelcome events. But in rural areas, the risk of frost stays with us until later in the month. If you've planted tender varieties outdoors, have horticultural fleece ready to cover them overnight when frost is forecast. If you raised your own plants in a greenhouse, harden them off for a few weeks before moving them outdoors permanently. I keep mine in open cardboard boxes — old veg trays or banana boxes — with fleece nearby, for overnight cover in case of frost. Place them in a sheltered spot — by a south or west-facing wall — and give plants 14 days to toughen up.

READER'S QUESTION

I have a beautiful hardy Hawkshead fuchsia, but hate the way it has grown tall and untidy. Is there a way to prune it to keep it looking beautiful or is Hawkshead just a plant with a bad habit?

Mrs G. Young, E. Sussex.

Hawkshead fuchsia: To keep it beautiful prune severely each spring

Hawkshead is a pale-flowered variety of Fuchsia magellanica and grows naturally as a tall, straggly shrub.

To keep it beautiful, prune it severely each spring. I cut all my F. magellanica varieties to ground level each April, treating them like herbaceous perennials. The resulting young growth stays handsome all summer and flowers from June.

Despite my brutal pruning, they still grow at least a metre high each year.

As a marginal plant for a medium or
large pond, kingcups are superb, giving a lovely spring display.

There's
a double form, Plena, and a smaller, white-flowered variety, but
neither is as showy or as fetching as the common marshland wildflower.

Plant kingcups in pots with the tops just below the surface of your pond
or in permanently damp soil.

Strawberries are a fantastic fruit for any gardener. They can be grown
in a vegetable plot en masse, or where space is limited they can be
grown in a patio pot or window box. We have chosen three varieties to
cover the whole cropping season: early season Honeoye; mid-season
Cambridge Favourite; and late season Florence. Delivery within 14 days.
Order 25 of one variety for only £11.99 or buy all three packs for the
price of 50, only £23.98. To order by debit/credit card, call 0844 472
4161 quoting MGS952 or visit mailgardenshop.co.uk. Or send a cheque
payable to Mail Garden Shop to: Mail Garden Shop, Strawberry Offer, Dept
MGS952, 14-16 Hadfield St, Old Trafford, Manchester M16 9FG.